In the latest Somerville Neighborhood Newscast, learn about the new affordable housing development on Washington Street, get the latest on a pro-divestment sit-in at Tufts, find out why Rep. Denise Provost is â€śappalledâ€ť with the trade deals being made in Washington, learn about the Tufts protests to support part-time janitors, go to the Boston Marathon with the Somerville Road Runners, learn more about the heroin and opioid epidemic and go to the cityâ€™s spring clean-up.

Oct. 21, 2014 - Visit the Kiley Barrel site, march with the Emperor Norton's Stationary Marching Band, learn how Tufts is trying to improve its treatment of victims of sexual abuse, see what's up with the Union Square "Community Benefits Agreement," and explore the taxi-Uber conundrum. These stories and more on Somerville Neighborhood News #25. Check out other episodes at www.somervilleneighborhoodnews.org.
Somerville Neighborhood News is produced by the volunteers, interns and staff of SCATV.

Tufts Daily reports the university has changed the name of the system students and professors uses to access student information from the Integrated Student Information System (ISIS) to just the Student Information System (SIS), "based on the negative associations with the group Islamic State, formerly known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS)."

Somerville, MA, September 23, 2014 â€“ Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) wowed a crowd of some 500 students, faculty and neighbors on September 15 with stories from her youth, but she also issued dire warnings about the big banks, the lack of investment in education and the â€śhollowing out of the middle class.â€ť

The senator was also protested by those who came to criticize her stand on the most recent chapter of the Israel-Gaza conflict. Once inside, however, Warren seemed to back away slightly from statements she made in August, saying that Palestinians had a right to self-defense.

Officials at the Westin Copley Place say that drunken Tufts students who left the hotel lobby filled with empty nips and urine in February have forced it to increase security for all future college events. Well, except for the Tufts Winter Bash, which they said they will never allow back, even if the university decides to rescind its decision to cancel it permanently.

Tufts University officials are aghast at an annual "Winter Bash" event earlier this month that ended with up to 20 students so drunk paramedics were kept busy "trying to make sure you didn't die" and with large numbers of students who vomited and pissed all over the place - two of them right in the hotel lobby - and who just generally treated hotel and university staffers like shit.

Tufts Daily chronicles the men's crew team, which was suspended for T-shirts reading "Check out our cox" after somebody complained that promoted "a culture of rape and sexual aggression," then unsuspended after the university president said the university did not want to infringe on "free expression" and that the real issue was that the team printed up unauthorized T shirts, not about whatever message they were sending with the slogan, and besides, the guys apologized.

The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today Tufts University had every right to bar the door to a lecture to a veterinarian who'd refused to pay its veterinary school for treating her horse.

The state's highest court ruled that at issue was strictly a non-paid bill, not any attempt to get at Margo Roman because she holds a different philosophy on veterinary care than her counterparts at the university veterinary school.

Tufts Daily reports police officers responding to a fire alarm in one dorm entered one student's room to find no student but: "a marijuana cigarette on a computer tray; a plastic bag with what appeared to be hallucinogenic mushrooms; four plastic baggies with marijuana; two boxes of full, unused CO2 cartridges, numbering approximately 40 cartridges; and two pieces of a pipe that screwed together with a balloon on one end. They also discovered a box with 150 used CO2 cartridges."

If only the dorm were on the Medford side of the campus: In addition to citations for drug possession, the room's occupant will be cited for possessing inhalants, which is illegal in Somerville, where the dorm is located.

Tufts Daily reports some university employees were forced to go home early over the weekend when the school shut down computers across the campus to try to wrest back control from hackers who managed to take over dozens of computers.

Interestingly, most of the computers belonged to Tufts professors and staffers, not students.

Tufts Daily reports Jumbo U. has a new policy that prohibits students from having sex in their dorm rooms if their roommate is present. Seems Tufts doesn't have many places for couples in lust to be alone, because there were "a significant number of complaints" about roomie sex last year. College officials emphasize the rule is meant to foster open communication between roommates, to try to head off formal complaints to the school.

Middlesex County DA details the case against two Tufts employees charged with extracting $1 million in college funds for trips to Paris, Las Vegas and other locations, Madonna tickets, shopping sprees at Hermes and purchases at Whole Foods.